HONG KONG, April 21 (Reuters) - Chinese electronics giant TCL Group said on Friday U.S. protectionism is the biggest hurdle to Chinese firms going global, and it had been told that a pending acquisition by the company of a United States technology firm may not be approved.

TCL Group Chairman Li Dongsheng, who was speaking at an event in Hong Kong, did not elaborate on the deal in question.

Li said TCL was also looking at more than 10 companies in Israel for a potential acquisition, although he did not provide details. (Reporting By Sijia Jiang; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)